NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 Affordable DX11 GPU

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Our Summary and Conclusion

Performance Summary: NVIDIA’s new GeForce GTS 450 is decent performer overall. In our testing, the reference GeForce GTS 450 typically performed about on-par with or somewhat lower than the stock Radeon HD 5770, but the factory overclocked GeForce GTS 450’s from Asus and EVGA were faster than the Radeon HD 5770 more often than not.

We like the new GeForce GTS 450. For approximately $129, which about $10 - $30 cheaper than the average Radeon HD 5770, the GTS 450 offers good performance that should work well for owners of 22” (or smaller) monitors. In terms of its features and performance, the GeForce GTS 450 looks to be a strong contender in the mainstream graphics card market and is a strong competitor to the Radeon HD 5770 in the segment. In fact, we’d have no problem recommending either card if you’ve got $130 or so to spend on a graphics card.

Reference NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450

The problem for NVIDIA is the Radeon H D 5770 has been available for almost a year. As of this moment, we like the GeForce GTS 450, but a year is an eternity in the graphics card space, so you have to wonder what AMD has up its virtual sleeve in the coming weeks and months leading up to the important holiday buying season.

Regardless, the new GeForce GTS 450 is a solid offering and users in need of a graphics card in its price range should give it some serious consideration. With the similarly, albeit somewhat higher, priced Radeon HD 5770, users can take advantage of Eyefinity, but the GeForce offers support for PhysX and CUDA. If you’ve got a single monitor, it may even come down to brand preference. The bottom line is, there is now some competition in the mainstream DX11 GPU arena, which is always a good thing for consumers.